kappo

Application launchers give you the possibility to quickly find and deploy programs on your computer. They are particularly handy when your desktop and quick launch bar are full and have no more room for shortcuts. Instead of looking for a tool on your own with the help of Windows Explorer or another file manager, you can simply get there faster with kappo.

kappo is unlike other program launchers we've come across. It puts a great deal of emphasis on minimalism, offering no kind of documentation on how it works. There are also no configuration settings involved: it's a simple and straightforward application that can be called whenever you need to rapidly locate other apps.

Following a brief setup operation that shouldn't give you any trouble, kappo gets integrated into the systray at startup, showing an icon to demonstrate its presence. The way is works is pretty basic: left click the tray icon to bring up the kappo window, then enter the name of the program you're aiming for.

If your search is successful and kappo manages to locate your target, you should be able to notice it by its icon, then press Enter to launch it. However, the tool seems to be limited when it comes to the scan scope. Firstly, files and folders are not included. This feature is actually a bonus offered by some application launchers, so kappo doesn't actually fells short in this case.

Secondly, some built-in Windows features are detected, like sleep, shutdown, command prompt, Calculator or Task Manager. Unfortunately, not all installed programs were detected during our evaluation. For example, it failed to spot Windows Notepad although Notepad++ was located without any issues. It also didn't identify Chrome but worked with Firefox.

It seems that kappo is a pretty rough around the edges at the moment. Another downside of the app is that it cannot be brought up to the screen with a key shortcut. Nevertheless, we admire the simplicity behind it and hope that the software project will be improved by its maker.